


"You Can Call Me Pete"

by baloobird



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Anti-Starker, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Not Canon Compliant, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is a Good Dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-24 18:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22362472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baloobird/pseuds/baloobird
Summary: Today is the one-year anniversary of Ben Parker's death and Peter tries to pretend that everything is okay.But after hearing an all too familiar nickname said by his mentor, it's obvious that Peter is most definitelynotokay.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 33
Kudos: 317





	"You Can Call Me Pete"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ethicallama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ethicallama/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALMOST BIRTHDAY TWIN!!!!! I hope your day is as amazing as you are 💖🎉

Peter has been dreading this day for months. 

He tried not to think about it and whenever he did, he pushed those thoughts out of his mind as fast as humanly possible. He even tried to convince himself that that day will just magically skip and the world will go on from Wednesday to Friday.

But the world doesn’t work like that, unfortunately, and no matter how much Peter wants it to, he has to face it and take the day in stride.

Today is the one-year anniversary of Ben’s untimely death. 

And Peter still remembers it as if it happened yesterday.

He still hears the gunshot that pierces through his eardrums, still sees his uncle, a man that Peter always thought to be indestructible, on the ground and looking so helpless...so  _ hopeless. _

While laying in bed, the young hero stares at his hands. He can damn near see the blood that covered them as the life slowly left Uncle Ben’s eyes. 

The kid dives under the covers in an attempt to block out the memory but he can't, he  _ can’t. _ His brain keeps showing the traumatic experience as if he's watching a movie: him grabbing Ben's hand, using the other one to try and stop the blood, soon letting go of his uncle's grip because just one hand wasn't working fast enough. 

Ben soon grabbing both of his nephew's hands and bringing them close...Peter seeing a look of acceptance in his eyes...Peter feeling tear after tear fall down his cheeks and not having the slightest care to wipe them away.

He hears the last words his uncle ever said:

"I love you."

And Peter, so full of emotion and so full of  _ panic _ that he couldn't say "I love you too."

He's thought about that every day since.

What kind of a nephew is he, what kind of a  _ son _ is he to not say it back? His uncle was laying there fucking  _ dying _ and all the man wanted to hear was his kid to tell him, "I love you too."

_ I love you too. _

_ I love you too. _

_ I love you too. _

Peter smushes his face into the mattress, still trying and failing to will the memory away. 

He stays under the covers for who knows how long, caught up in some kind of trance. He only snaps out of it when he hears the coffee pot beep, signaling that May is up.

All Peter wants to do is to hide under these covers, to shut himself out from the world for a day and pretend he doesn't exist. 

But Uncle Ben wouldn't want that, the teen thinks. What would the man say if he saw him wallowing in grief and pity like this?

With that thought in mind, Peter pushes the covers back and begrudgingly gets up.

The kid focuses on his plans for the day as he brushes his teeth: he and Ned working on a project for biology, history test, weekly lab day with Tony. 

He half-smiles at that while toothpaste drips down his chin. The two heroes only just started an actual "internship" a couple of months ago after the Vulture incident, and to say it's been fun is an understatement. Between helping with upgrades and aiding in building Iron Man suits, it's been every science geek's dream.

And the only thing that's going to get him through this inevitably awful day.

The kid soon finishes his morning routine and gets dressed before settling at the kitchen counter with a bowl or two or  _ three _ of cereal. His aunt is sitting next to him sipping on coffee.

They don't say much.

May clearly didn’t need to be reminded of what today is either.

After a few minutes of silence sans the crunch from the cereal, the nurse says, ever so quietly, “You can stay home, y’know...it’s okay.”

Peter freezes for a few seconds, mid-chew, seriously contemplating that offer. He then swallows the bite and says, voice unsure but firm at the same time, “You know I can’t...but you can, if you want and stuff….”

May gives him a smile but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes, “You know I can’t.”

Her kid manages to put one on himself before he gets up and puts his dishes in the sink. He puts on his backpack and gives his aunt a hug, pretending not to notice how she’s squeezing him for a few seconds longer than she normally does.

Peter then walks out the door, putting one foot in front of the other...just like how Ben would want him to.

_ For Ben. _

-

Something is definitely up with the kid, Tony thinks.

On a typical lab day, the kid talks so much that his mentor can’t a word in edgewise.

Not that Tony minds it, he actually gets a kick out of hearing story after story that comes out of his protege’s mouth. And since they don’t know each other that well, he’s all for using this as a segway to a game of “Twenty Questions.”

But today is so unusually quiet that the older hero isn’t quite sure what to make of it.

_ Is the kid like...okay? _

Without moving his head, Tony looks over at him from a couple of tables away and observes him.

The teenager  _ seems _ fine, the man supposes. Peter is just mixing up his web fluid like he’s done every week since the “internship” started.

But still, something’s not right and Tony just can’t put his finger on what it is.

Hoping to jumpstart  _ anything _ from his protege, the billionaire asks, “So, how was school, how’s that project coming?”

“Good.”

_ Are you fucking kidding me? _

“What’s your project on again?”

“Mitosis.”

Tony holds back a frustrated sigh before trying again, “You’re working on that with your friend, right, what’s his name again? Ted? Ed?”

“Ned.”

“How’s he?”

“Fine.”

_ Oh, for fuck’s sake. _

Not able to take it anymore, the mechanic drops what he’s doing and turns to his intern fully, “Okay, Pete, what the  _ hell _ is going on, you’re scaring me here.”

Unexpectedly, said intern looks up at the older man, eyes as wide as a cat. He then says, voice scarily quiet, “What’d you just say?”

_ Oh shit, what did I do? _

The other genius is taken aback, “Um...you’re just-you’re just, uh, not being  _ you, _ kid, I just wanna know what the hell happened.”

“No, n-n-n-no, not that,  _ what did you say?” _ Peter also drops what he’s doing and he starts taking deep breaths.

Tony slowly starts walking towards the spiderling while saying what he hopes is reassurance, “Pete, it’s okay -”

_ “Stop! _ Just stop, stop calling me that.” Peter collapses into a chair and starts sobbing, head buried deep into his crossed arms on top of the table.

The hero has absolutely no idea what to do. This has never happened before, how does one even take care of a whole-ass human being?

_ Okay...teenage hormones, it’s gotta be hormones ‘cuz why in the fuck would he freak out so bad over a nickname? _

Tony stops in front of the kid on the other side of the table, not knowing what to do or say. He quietly sits in a chair and folds his hands atop the surface, gaze still on him.

He starts to put a comforting hand on his protege’s arm but recoils at the last second. What if that’s an overstep, the genius wonders. 

The man again starts to put his hand out but pulls it back once more, deciding to cross his arms instead. He spends the next couple of minutes in silence, waiting for the teen to calm down and get whatever this is out of his system.

Peter does settle down eventually, to his mentor’s relief, but he still keeps his head down. The older hero guesses the poor guy is probably embarrassed. He then says, “Peter?” 

The young genius responds between bouts of deep breaths, “Huh?”

“You okay?”

_ Wow, what a stupid question, my God. _

Peter takes a couple more deep breaths before answering, “Yeah, yeah...I’m good now.”

_ A stupid answer to match the stupid question, okay then. _

“Wanna share with the 'class'?”

He sees the kid tense at that, “Um...n-not really.”

Tony keeps his tone soft in the hopes to keep him talking, “Well, too bad, you can’t just have a breakdown in my lab and not tell me why, pal.” 

His intern lays his head on top of his still crossed arms, never meeting the other man’s eyes. He sniffles a few times and rubs his eyes - probably to wipe away any tears - and puts his hand back under his head. He then says defensively, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry -”

“Cut that shit with the sorries, I don’t care, I’m just worried about you, kid.”

A lull of stillness floods through the room, so quiet that Tony swears he hears the heat turn off from the ventilation system. He sees the kid fidget with his shirtsleeve, almost like he’s contemplating telling his hero what happened.

Tony honestly isn’t sure if he even wants to be told what led to this thing but it sounded like the right thing to say so he stands by it.

Peter then says, so softly that the older man has to strain his ears to hear him, “Ben always called me that.”

_ Ben, who the fuck is Ben? _

“Uh...who’s Ben?”

The intern lifts his head and looks at his hero in surprise, eyes rimmed red from crying, “You don’t know about Uncle Ben?”

That confuses Tony more, “You  _ have _ an uncle Ben? May’s married?”

The spiderling looks down at his arms that are still crossed on the table, “She  _ was _ married...I-I  _ had _ an uncle Ben.”

_ Oh, shit. _

“And...and he always called you that?”

Peter nods, looking almost serene as if he’s reminiscing, “Yeah, he um, he started calling me that before my parents died. He always made me feel special, y’know?”

Tony smiles, “Yeah.” He’s afraid to ask but he knows he has to, “What happened to your uncle Ben?”

The kid’s face falls instantly, making the older man’s heart fill with guilt. Peter rests his head back on his arms, looking away from his mentor. He sniffles once more before he says, voice quiet, “He died...he died because of me.”

The mechanic’s eyebrows raise in alarm, “Kid -”

“It’s true. God, I was so stupid.”

“Try me, I bet none of it was stupid.”

Peter lifts his head and glances at his hero again before looking back down at his arms. He takes in a breath and starts, “We got in a fight...I don’t even remember what the fight was about, that’s how stupid it was.”

Tony looks on in silence, the atmosphere growing so tense that one could cut a knife through it.

His protege continues, “So I ran out. I just...wanted to get away for a little bit and calm down, y’know? I didn’t know my uncle was gonna come find me.”

“Because he cared about you.”

The child nods his head, eyes starting to glisten with unshed tears, “Yeah, um, anyway I was walking through Queens, not going anywhere, just walking, when I overheard a store being robbed. I had my powers, I could’ve stopped it...but I didn’t...I didn’t even call the police.”

That takes the billionaire by surprise, “Why?”

“‘Cuz I just didn’t, it wasn’t my problem so why worry about it...that sounds so bad -”

“It’s not, kid, it’s not, I get it, but what does that have to do with your uncle?”

Peter rubs his eyes again before putting his arm back in its crossed position, “He’s a better person than me. He was a cop, so when he saw that store being robbed, he  _ did _ try to stop it. But the burglar shot him and uh…” he sniffles once more, “He ran off.” 

Tony sits back, stunned, “Holy shit -”

“I heard the gunshot so I ran back...I had to find out if they were okay, whoever it was.”

The older genius can’t help but smile.

_ Now  _ there’s _ the kid from those YouTube videos. _

Peter’s breathing starts hitching up, “H-He...he wasn’t okay….”

“Oh my God -”

“I tried to help him,” the kid pauses to sob, “I tried, oh my God, I tried to help and-and-and I-I couldn’t, I couldn’t, I couldn’t -”

“Hey,” without thinking, Tony puts his hand on his intern’s arm, gently squeezing it as a form of comfort, “Don’t think for one second that that was your fault -”

_ “But it was!” _ Tears are now flowing freely down the teen’s face, “All I had to do was stop it and Ben would’ve been fine...he would still be here.”

“Peter, no, don’t start thinking like that, your uncle died because something tragic happened -”

“Which was me -”

_ “No, _ it wasn’t, Pete-Peter, it wasn’t your fault. If Ben was sitting here right now, he’d say the same thing.”

“But he’s  _ not _ here, he’s not here because of me -”

“No,  _ not _ because of you, okay, the only person to blame is the one that killed him, the one that pulled the trigger and shot him and  _ killed him.” _ Tony squeezes the kid’s arm, “Look at me.”

It takes a few seconds but Peter does, reluctantly. His hero squeezes the teen’s arm once more before he says, voice soft but firm at the same time, “What happened to Ben was not your fault. I know I didn’t know him but I do know that he would not want you to live like this, to carry this burden on your back...a burden that you don’t  _ deserve _ to be carrying.”

The billionaire then thinks back to when the two of them met, and his mind replays what the young hero said that he still thinks about to this day:

_ When you can do the things that I can...but you don’t, and  _ then _ the bad things happen...they happen because of you. _

There is not a single doubt in the genius’s mind that Peter was talking about his uncle, of not being able to save him when he was more than capable.

Having something that heavy on one’s conscious...Tony doesn’t wish that one anyone, least of all the kid sitting in front of him.

The kid leans down and uses his shirtsleeve to wipe his eyes yet again before resting his head back on his arms, still fully aware of the older man’s warm grip. He takes solace in that warmth, that warmth that he doesn’t receive too often anymore and whispers, “He said he loved me.”

“What?”

“The-The last words he said, he said he loved me,” Peter pauses again to sob, “And I couldn’t say it back, I couldn’t say it, I was so scared and I couldn’t say it and he -” he cuts himself off and starts crying fully.

Tony mutters, “Oh, shit” before getting up and going to the kid. He then kneels next to him and pulls the teenager in a hug.

Peter immediately leans into the comfort, still in tears. He then says, “I didn’t say ‘I love you’, I wanted to say it and I couldn’t -”

“You didn’t have to say it, he knew you loved him. I promise he knew.” Tony then tenses up suddenly.

Because he just realized that he’s  _ hugging _ his intern right now, this same intern that he’s only known for a few months and clearly he knows nothing about the guy if he didn’t know the kid had a freaking  _ uncle _ that raised him.

However, Tony ignores the awkwardness and puts his focus on the teen who is  _ finally _ starting to calm down. He resists the urge to rub his intern’s back and instead just keeps it at a firm hug, refraining from wincing at the sting in his kneecaps.

Said intern says between breaths, “God, it all feels like it just happened.”

“How long ago was it?”

“A year...a year ago today.”

_ The dreaded one-year anniversary, no wonder he freaked out. _

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? You didn’t have to come today, I would’ve understood.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather be doing stuff than just sitting around thinking about it.”

Tony grunts, “You’re better than me, I did nothing but drink on my parents’ one-year anniversary.”

Peter moves his head to where he can see his mentor out of the corner of his eye, “I’m sorry -”

“Nah, that was a long time ago, the focus is on  _ you _ now, not me.”

“Doesn’t make me any less sorry. Thanks, by the way...this is nice.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

The kid snorts, “You like this too, don’t lie.”

_ “Whatever.” _ Tony fondly rolls his eyes, “How’re you feeling?”

His intern nods his head against the mechanic’s shirt, “Better...Mr. Stark, does it get easier?”

The older man hesitates for a few seconds before answering, “It does...it never goes away but it does get better. There’ll come an anniversary where you won’t have a freak-out like the one today.”

“Good, ’cuz I’m exhausted. And I know Ben wouldn’t like me like this.”

“You’re right...he’s proud of you, you know.”

Peter answers sarcastically, “Oh,  _ really?” _

_ “Yes _ really, he’d love the hero you’ve become.”

The teenager smiles at the compliment, “I became Spider-Man because of him, you know?”

“Now why does that not surprise me.” Both of them chuckle at that.

“Yeah, um, the first thing I did was track down that guy and I webbed him up in front of the police station...seeing him like that shouldn’t’ve made me happy but it did.”

“Don’t blame ya, I’d be the same way.”

“But yeah, um, after that I just...kept going...and now Iron Man has been hugging me for like twenty minutes.”

_ Shit, it’s been that long? _

Tony starts to recoil in embarrassment, but his protege stops him by wrapping his hands around the man’s torso and saying, “Please don’t, this is nice, please don’t go.”

_ But my knees are fucking killing me. _

“Alright, alright, I’m here, I'm not going anywhere."

They spend another minute or so in comfortable silence, each keeping their arms wrapped around each other. 

_ This is, by far, the most bizarre thing I've ever done. _

Soon, Peter is the one to let go first and it takes everything in Tony to not breathe a sigh of relief that he can give his knees a break. 

The man stretches as he stands up, asking the kid, "So, what d'ya wanna do now?"

The young hero answers sheepishly, "Um, I wanna finish the web fluid and...maybe I can help  _ you _ out with something?"

Tony looks at the kid in surprise, "Really, you wanna keep going?"

The kid nods his head determinedly, "Yeah, yeah, um yeah, I-I do."

The older man gives him a smile, "Okay great, Pete-Peter, uh, kid, yeah...yeah, I'll be over here if you need me."

Peter faces the table to continue making his web fluid but a second later, he turns back to his mentor and says timidly, "Um...you can call me 'Pete', um, if you want...I I-I like it."

Tony smirks and glances over his shoulder at the tyke, "C'mon, Pete, the web fluid's not gonna make itself."

Peter smiles in return while playfully rolling his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

The two heroes continue their time in the lab as if nothing ever happened. And the young genius is forever grateful that Tony never brings it up again.

The more they work on their respective projects, the more Peter thinks about the “what ifs.” 

What would his life had been like if Uncle Ben was still alive?

Would Peter and Tony Stark ever meet? Would Peter had ever even become Spider-Man? And if he did, how would his guardian react? 

The kid likes to think that he’d be supportive like May, maybe even want to help out with the making of his suit...or his uncle would probably just “supervise” because he won’t actually know what to do.

Peter smiles at that mental picture. Maybe Ben and Tony would’ve been friends, he wonders.

But the teen knows he shouldn’t dwell, that breakdown he just had is evidence of that. The longer he stays in the past, the less likely he can move on and live the rest of his life to the fullest. 

So now, the spiderling has a new mission on his mind...a  _ fun _ mission: 

To hug Iron Man at some point during every single lab session.

Peter glances over his shoulder at his mentor and smiles mischievously.

_ Challenge accepted.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! I'm also on tumblr @baloobird


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